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The Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946)
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Jul 4, 2022 12:03:25   #
Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California
 
ORpilot wrote:
Wonderful photos. I hope you had plenty of hot chocolate to keep you warm


Hi ORpilot
Thanks for checking out the images of the Fireworks Galaxy and for the comment. It was actually quite warm outside, and the real issue was the mosquitoes. Fortunately, once I uncover the telescope, I remote all the functions to my desktop inside to take the pictures and let the computer stay up late to finish taking the shots.

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Jul 4, 2022 12:17:46   #
Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California
 
Ben's nana wrote:
Amazing!!! I'm hoping to try astrophotography some day
Fran


Hi Fran
Thanks for checking out the image of the Fireworks Galaxy and for the comment. Astrophotography is an extremely fun and challenging hobby. It does keep the mind active as it is a constant learning experience.

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Jul 4, 2022 12:18:51   #
Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California
 
Earnest Botello wrote:
Great captures, Ballard.


Hi Earnest Botello
Thanks for checking out the images of NGC 6946 and for the comment.

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Jul 4, 2022 12:53:12   #
UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT
 
Beautiful work!

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Jul 4, 2022 13:13:34   #
Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California
 
UTMike wrote:
Beautiful work!


Hi UTMike
Thanks for viewing the photos of the Fireworks Galaxy and for the comment.

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Jul 4, 2022 13:20:55   #
angler Loc: StHelens England
 
Excellent.

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Jul 4, 2022 14:02:11   #
Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California
 
angler wrote:
Excellent.


Hi angler
Thanks for viewing the photos of NGC 6946 and for the comment.

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Jul 4, 2022 14:20:38   #
Fly cessna Loc: Hemet ,Ca
 
Ballard wrote:
Just in time for the fourth of July I did some imaging of the Fireworks Galaxy also known as NGC 6946. Although it kind of looks like a firework in the image with Hydrogen alpha added in, this little galaxy actually gets its name due to all the supernovas that have occurred in it (~10 in the last centry). The first image was created by combining monochrome images taken using a Luminance, Red, Green and Blue filters. The second image added frames to the red channel using a 5 Nanometer Hydrogen Alpha Filter (Note: the HA frames where masked to only add HA data to the galaxy so that the foreground stars retained their color from just the LRGB data). The red knots in the second image show locations of active star formation in NGC 6946. This galaxy is about 1/3 the diameter of our galaxy (The Milky Way) and has ~1/2 the number of stars. NGC 6946 is in the Constellation of Cygnus and is around 25.2 Million Light years away.
If you double download the image you can find many more distant galaxies none of which appear in my charts (look for small elongated and or fuzzy blobs of light). All question, comments and suggestions are welcome.

For those interested These images were taken with a 4000mm focal length at F10 using a 16 inch Meade LX200 Schmidt Cassegrain telescope. The camera used is a monochrome ASI 6200MM pro cooled camera. All images were taken at -12 degrees C, with the gain set to 100 and the binning set to 2x2.
The following exposures were used
35 frames for 4 minutes each using the Luminance filter
25 frames for 5 minutes each using the Red filter.
22 frames for 5 minutes each using the Green filter
21 frames for 5 minutes each using the Blue filter.
Total exposure time for the LRGB set was 8 hours

For the Ha exposures 17 frames were taken at 10 minutes each for a total of 2 hours and 50 minutes.
Pixinsight was used to calibrate, register and stack the frames together.
Just in time for the fourth of July I did some ima... (show quote)


Awesome still working on a good location around Hemet Ca. To do some Astronomy and set up my lx200 8” using my T8i for the camera and going to try my R6 next on it

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Jul 4, 2022 14:42:04   #
weberwest Loc: Ferndale WA
 
WOW!

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Jul 4, 2022 15:10:21   #
OneShot1 Loc: Wichita, KS, USA
 
Superb!

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Jul 4, 2022 15:23:59   #
Railfan_Bill Loc: "Lost Wages", Nevada
 
Hi Ballard, Great shots of the Fireworks Galaxy. Unfortunately, my little 8 inch RC could not do this justice as you have. I do have a question: why did you use 2 x 2 binning? Is it only for file size or trying to reduce the star bloating in the Milky Way stars?

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Jul 4, 2022 15:36:24   #
tony85629 Loc: Sahuarita, Az
 
Excellent work. You really have that 16" cooking!

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Jul 4, 2022 17:59:13   #
merrytexan Loc: georgia
 
Ballard wrote:
Just in time for the fourth of July I did some imaging of the Fireworks Galaxy also known as NGC 6946. Although it kind of looks like a firework in the image with Hydrogen alpha added in, this little galaxy actually gets its name due to all the supernovas that have occurred in it (~10 in the last centry). The first image was created by combining monochrome images taken using a Luminance, Red, Green and Blue filters. The second image added frames to the red channel using a 5 Nanometer Hydrogen Alpha Filter (Note: the HA frames where masked to only add HA data to the galaxy so that the foreground stars retained their color from just the LRGB data). The red knots in the second image show locations of active star formation in NGC 6946. This galaxy is about 1/3 the diameter of our galaxy (The Milky Way) and has ~1/2 the number of stars. NGC 6946 is in the Constellation of Cygnus and is around 25.2 Million Light years away.
If you double download the image you can find many more distant galaxies none of which appear in my charts (look for small elongated and or fuzzy blobs of light). All question, comments and suggestions are welcome.

For those interested These images were taken with a 4000mm focal length at F10 using a 16 inch Meade LX200 Schmidt Cassegrain telescope. The camera used is a monochrome ASI 6200MM pro cooled camera. All images were taken at -12 degrees C, with the gain set to 100 and the binning set to 2x2.
The following exposures were used
35 frames for 4 minutes each using the Luminance filter
25 frames for 5 minutes each using the Red filter.
22 frames for 5 minutes each using the Green filter
21 frames for 5 minutes each using the Blue filter.
Total exposure time for the LRGB set was 8 hours

For the Ha exposures 17 frames were taken at 10 minutes each for a total of 2 hours and 50 minutes.
Pixinsight was used to calibrate, register and stack the frames together.
Just in time for the fourth of July I did some ima... (show quote)


wow you spent a lot of time on it, ballard...love the beautiful colors of your fireworks galaxy, and hope you are
having a nice july 4th!

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Jul 4, 2022 18:39:30   #
Kencamera
 
Very nice. I am impressed at the technical detail necessary to get these excellent photographs. Ken

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Jul 5, 2022 19:19:41   #
Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California
 
Fly cessna wrote:
Awesome still working on a good location around Hemet Ca. To do some Astronomy and set up my lx200 8” using my T8i for the camera and going to try my R6 next on it


Hi Fly cessna
Thanks for viewing the Fireworks Galaxy and for the comment. I look forward to seeing some of your shots with the Lx200. I've had some good success with a canon DSLR on moon, planets and deep sky, however the DSLR has an IR blocking filter that knocks out most of the HA with deep sky, so I bit the bullet and got a filter wheel and Cooled monocamera. Here are some examples of using a DSLR on the moon, Jupiter and the Triffid nebula. (Note: Jupiter was using an Old C11 as the telescope, the other two were made using the LX200.)
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-680013-1.html
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-600510-1.html
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-652657-1.html

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